


Arms to Shoulders

by koschei



Category: Marvel, Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-21
Updated: 2011-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-27 16:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/297587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koschei/pseuds/koschei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Civilization collapsed decades ago, and the few that remain are scavengers, living in hovels and cobbling together what they need to survive out of spare parts and trash. The first chapter is just Teddy and Eli, but everyone will come in eventually!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arms to Shoulders

The two boys stood at the top of the small mountain of rubble, staring down at the entrance to the shelter. They stood for a minute, calculating, weighing their options, before the shorter one nodded. They both double checked their gear and started toward the hut, clambering and sliding their way down the trash heap. At the bottom they both pulled out their pistols and edged toward the doorway, with dangling chains and an old silver blanket in place of a real door. The blond one carefully pulled aside the makeshift curtain and crept inside, gun at the ready. After a minute he poked his head out and nodded, giving the all clear. His friend slipped inside, and they both removed their masks and goggles.

"Nice find, Ted," said Eli, giving their surroundings the once over. It would be charitable to call it a hovel, but they were the first ones there since its previous inhabitants, and that alone was something of a miracle.

Teddy nodded, already going through the makeshift kitchen methodically. "Thanks. I still cant believe nobody's raided here first, but I guess the leeches were kind of a turn off."  
Eli chuckled. He headed over to the small portable air filter and examined it. It was broken, but most of the parts were still usable. He pulled out his precious multi-tool and disassembled it in a matter of minutes, carefully placing each undamaged part into his pack. He was examining the gray-tinged filter canister, trying to determine how much life it had left in it, when a quiet "Holy shit" broke his concentration.

"What?" He glanced at the door to make sure nobody else was there, but they were alone.

"Eli, you have to come here." Teddy sounded amazed. Eli groaned, but he went over to where Ted was kneeling in front of a cupboard. Inside were cans, real honest to God cans, filled with foods Eli could barely remember the taste of. Beans, tomatoes, carrots, even a few cans of fish and one of ham.

"Where did they get all this?" Eli hadn't had canned food since he was a child, not since he'd eaten his grandmother's very last can of chicken, saved from when she was a teenager and there was still a government who handed out food, on his fifth birthday.

Teddy shook his head, still in shock. "They must have been hoarding it for years. I honestly can't believe someone didn’t steal this from them, we must be seriously lucky."

Eli stood up, brushing some dust off of his suit. His suit, like almost everything else in existence, was perpetually covered in filth, but Eli had picked up the habit of brushing himself off somewhere and it had become second nature to him. Teddy very carefully packed the cans in his backpack, and Eli moved onto the den's one small heater. Like the air filter, it was broken, but most of the electronics were still useful, and so was heating coil itself. Eli grinned as he wrapped it in a dirty cloth and placed it in his bag. A heating coil could be traded for a whole lot of things. Maybe even a new sleeping bag for Kate, who sorely needed a replacement.

After picking over the whole hut (yielding a bag of soy flour, a suit with only two small tears in it, two blocks of unflavored hemp protein, a pair of goggles with one lens only slightly cracked, a silver blanket in good condition, a roll of duct tape, eight bullets, a wrench, and a bicycle chain), Eli and Teddy headed to the back of the shelter, coming to stand in front of the four sleeping compartments. This part always came last. Teddy nodded, and together they opened the first compartment door. The body had been dead maybe two days, maybe three. Eli grabbed it by the shoulders and Teddy by the feet, and in one practiced motion they swung it down onto the floor.

"Contaminated water," Eli said. Teddy nodded. Contaminated food, water, or sickness got most of them in the end.

They both knelt down next to the body. Quickly they stripped it of its rebreather, boots, socks, knife, and jacket. Next sleeping compartment. Rebreather, worn sneakers, socks, gun, hat, jacket. On to the next. Rebreather, knife, a handknit sweater, flint and steel. Last sleeping compartment. Rebreather, boots (no socks), large knife in its own sheath, sweater with a hood. Teddy was about to get up when he saw, in the corner of his eye, something shiny around the last body's neck. It was a silver necklace, with the six pointed star Billy had scratched into the wall inside his sleeping compartment. Teddy hesitated, but after a moment he reached out and took the necklace, unclasping it carefully. It wouldn't do a dead girl any good. He pocketed it and stood up, walking over to where Eli was waiting with their packs.

"You ready?" Eli swung his pack onto his back and buckled the waist strap. Teddy nodded and followed suit. They both secured their rebreathers, goggles, and gloves, and Eli pulled the hood of his suit over his head against the cold. In the sober silence that nearly always followed a corpse looting, they both trudged back up the trash hill and towards home.


End file.
